Mountain - Open for Business

Mountain - Open for Business

Guess what? We opened! December 28th, we opened to a very large crowd. The numbers won’t be tallied before submitting the column, but I can share with you we processed over 300 season passes and we essentially ran out of food! Ha. I believe that’s a first. But no worries, the Poley truck made a special trip to re-stock the shelves and we were good to go again the next day. And for those of you upset you had to wait in line to get your passes, might I recommend you pick them up Saturday mornings during the months of November and December next year to avoid such lines.

Back to opening day – which may lend confusion for some in the future as we essentially have two separate entities to “open” now; (1) the Bar & Grill and (2) the Mountain. If I reported last week that the Bar & Grill was busy, well it is that much busier now. According to the attendance of the first two Sunday brunches, I’m guessing you can expect that to be a weekly occurrence. Likewise, I would invite you for breakfast any day of the week as the new breakfast menu offers a great variety of options, from traditional to non-traditional options. Follow Poley Mountain Official on Facebook for periodic menu option previews.

If you haven’t checked out our new Web site, I suggest you type www.poleymountain.com into your url address bar. You will find loads of information and pictures, and I think you will really like our new Poley Cams. You can find them down the left-hand side of the Home page, or under The Mountain menu item. Check these out to see views both up and down the Mountain. They are handy to check crowd levels, weather conditions, or just out of curiosity.

We opened the Mountain to our guests with the Chute and Beginner Areas on Monday the 28th. With our snow making abilities and some help from Mother Nature, we were able to add Snow White to the list on Tuesday. Before the weekend we hope to add Lazy Way and wouldn’t it be great to get the Bullet and/or Phil’s Folly too.
To touch a little on the subject of “Snow Making”, as of Wednesday morning, December 29th, we have made snow for 150 pump hours. Pump hours are the hours whereby snow actually pumps out of the snow guns. As reported last season, when making snow, we leave it be where it lands to create large mounds, otherwise known as “the dome effect”. An exterior crust tends to form which preserves the snow within the mounds; thereby, protecting the investment made into making the snow.

Snow making runs 24 hours a day – 7 days a week this time of year. Anywhere from mid-November to the middle of January, if the conditions are right, we are making snow. We do try to limit making snow during open hours; however, every opportunity also needs to be capitalized upon during the early days. As reported last season, when opening prior to Christmas, an average of 90% of the snow you ski/ride on is man-made snow. We have made substantial investments in our snow making abilities, and will continue to do so in the effort to see our guests skiing/riding as early into winter as possible.

Having said that, this week’s take home message is you don’t have to be a skier or a snowboarder to visit Poley Mountain. The Slope Side Bar & Grill is open to everyone, and is open daily. We have quite an entertainment line-up as well this season, with live music most Thursday’s, nearly every Friday, and some Saturdays. And if we can get Bill to loosen the purse strings, we’re hoping to book even more ;-)

As Written for the Kings County Record, Publication Date Tuesday, January 5th, 2016